A variety of toys may be configured to provide different play configurations. In one example, a toy may provide a first play configuration simulating a vehicle and a second play configuration simulating an animal. For toy vehicles that simulate animals, it may be desirable for a play configuration to provide an action that is confrontational. In one approach, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,334,078 a toy may include a jaw or mouth that may be opened and closed, thereby providing confrontational play. However, the inventors herein have realized that this approach may provide only one type of confrontational play and may only confront toys of a particular size, for example.
The inventors herein have further realized that a single toy providing multiple forms of confrontation can be used to accommodate a variety of other toys, for example, of varying size and/or shape. In one approach a toy vehicle having a plurality of play configurations, comprising a frame; a vehicle body moveably coupled to the frame with at least two degrees of freedom of movement, said two degrees of freedom of movement including a longitudinal translation of the body relative to the frame for selecting at least a first play configuration of the plurality of play configurations; and a rotation of the body relative to the frame for selecting at least a second of the plurality of play configurations is provided.
In this manner, a toy vehicle may provide a plurality of play configurations. For example, when simulating an animal in a first play configuration, the toy may be able to confront toys that are smaller and/or lower to the ground via forward movement, enabling the mouth to access a lower region. In another example, when simulating an animal in a second play configuration, the toy may be able to confront other toys that are larger, enabling the mouth to access a higher region than the first play configuration. In this way it is possible to increase interaction with toys of varying size. Further, in one embodiment, the plurality of play configurations may be selected via a single hand position, thereby enabling a user to generate a variety of play configurations with improved ease and speed, thereby improving play.
While the toy may have a plurality of play configurations, it may also have only a single play configuration, such as rotation of the body relative to the frame, yet still provide play value via a user-actuatable mouth chomping feature, for example. Further, the toy may optionally include a retractable tongue that generates snake-like movement, thereby providing additional play value. These are just some of the variations and alternatives possible, and numerous more are described further herein.